RULE CHANGE CUTS NUMBERS: EU CO2 emissions down 3% in 2008 from 2007

Final verified CO2 emissions from across the EU fell by 3.06% in 2008 from 2007 levels, the European Commission said Friday.

While few feel that the global economic downturn resulted in a 3.06% reduction in EU CO2 emissions in 2008 compared to 2007 levels, the reduction was partly due to businesses taking measures to cut their emissions in response to the strong carbon price that prevailed until the economic downturn started.

Although the EU remains predominantly focused on CO2 emissions, from 2008 onwards it also includes emissions of nitrous oxide from the production of nitric acid in the Netherlands and Norway.

Green Inspired Buyout

The Italian Auto major Fiat is planning to elevate itself from industries No.9 position to No.2 position through the takeover of Chrysler and GM Europe. With the auto world falling apart and Toyota’s awful results proving a point of the genuine crisis, the takeover move looks like a overly optimistic approach.

Interestingly there is another reason for this move. Governments everywhere want the industry to make cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars. It means auto makers will have to find enough money to survive the crisis and fund a radical overhaul of their production systems.

The easiest way to meet carbon dioxide targets is to make sure your fleet is stuffed with small, lean cars. Guess what? Fiat knows a thing or two about small cars. The Fiat small cars are the best-sellers in Europe. The European Federation of Transport and Environment says average emissions of new Fiats are the second-lowest among the 14 top European auto manufacturers.

Fiat has something to offer, and it is not cash but it is access to small-car technology, including the platforms, the four-cylinder engines and a promising new two-cylinder engine. Chrysler would save billions in development costs by taking Fiat's small-car technology and slapping a Chrysler badge on it.

GM Europe, dominated by Germany's Opel brand, has a decent fleet of small cars. In that sense, it doesn't need Fiat. But developing Fiat and Opel models from the same platform, and getting rid of redundancies, would cut down the vast amounts of money required to invent low-emission cars. The idea is to use a merger to ensure platforms are shared on every model.

With governments everywhere want more fuel-efficient cars. The carbon dioxide emission regulations are going to play a critical role. None of these car companies can afford to finance the new technology on their own. And one way to keep going is to go with Fiat.

Investment In Clean/Green Tech

Renewable energy companies could still provide substantial returns for private equity investors this year, as those with real growth potential are surviving the economic slowdown. These companies underperformed in 2008 because of their dependence on growth and technology advances. The key two barriers of growth for clean energy companies have been the recent financial crisis and the dipping oil price. Larger ones are surviving because they downsized, cut costs and raised capital before the economic crisis hit.

Global investment in forms of clean energy such as wind or solar power fell in the second half of 2008 and in the first three months of 2009 compared with the same period last year. Despite this, many clean energy companies are still growing compared with firms in other sectors, although at a lower rate than before the financial crisis. But investors are still quite optimistic. Many clean technology private equity fund managers raised a large amount of capital through new funds which means there is still a pool of capital for clean technology available.

The main challenge for investors in the short term is to identify which undervalued company are in the best position to grow in the long term and which have near-term access to financing to weather the recession.

A recent survey showed that half of institutional investors plan to increase their funding of clean energy compared with 12 months ago. As an investment option in the long run, the attractiveness of clean tech will not be affected by any crisis. Many companies are getting profit from subsidies and incentives for investing cleantech. Britain unveiled 1.4 billion pounds of initiatives to encourage investment in clean energy last month.

Hopefully in the coming months we should see clean tech companies attracting greater investments.

China : Green Miracle to match Economic Miracle

Public attitudes in China towards the environment have also started to change. Few recent news articles wrote that the wind farms in China have become a tourist attraction with newly married couples, kids and youths clicking photographs with windmills in the background.

Nuclear, solar and hydroelectricity are also being lined up for massive new investment through China's £400bn stimulus package, with 2020 targets for nuclear power raised from 40 gigawatts to 60 gigawatts, with some officials even talking of aiming for 70GW.

Investment is also being poured into China's electricity grid to enable more renewable sources to be connected, while planners say they want to reduce carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 50 per cent by 2020.

It seems China's leaders now realize that for long-term growth to be sustainable they will have to both reduce power usage by finding greater efficiencies and boost the amount of renewable energy entering the national grid.The green evolution in China has not been easy. It is only after the Chinese people woke up to these problems and put extensive pressure on the government to drive the change.

In Beijing the efforts to clean up the air pollution ahead of last year's Olympic Games as just one example of how the Chinese public's mindset is rapidly changing. After the games there were several popular campaigns by residents who had enjoyed clean air for the first time in a decade to keep polluting factories closed and retain traffic restrictions.

In Beijing the government has installed solar panels to power street lights and, along the rooftops of the city's remaining courtyard houses can be seen the winding pipes of solar water heaters, yet further evidence of change. The key will be the power of China's government to force through green measures and absorb the financial losses of early investment in green technologies.

It will be a massive challenge, but China could now achieve a "second, green miracle" to match the "economic miracle" of the last 20 years.